Allergy to Foods, Inhalants & Chemicals - signs and symptoms of

From DoctorMyhill
Jump to navigation Jump to search

[UPDATED MARCH 2022]

Allergy and Inflammation

Allergy is the great mimic. In some ways the body and immune system are not very clever. They can only react to things in one way - that is with inflammation. Inflammation causes redness, swelling, pain, heat and loss of function. When one looks at a diseased area, one can see those signs, but it does not tell you what is the cause of those signs. So for example looking at an area of inflamed skin one may not be able to tell if it was infected, allergic, had been sun-burnt or frozen, had acid spilled on it or whatever. Also, for example seeing a person with hay fever you may not be able to distinguish this from a head cold. Hay fever sufferers may get a fever too!

One can be allergic to anything under the sun, including the sun. For practical purposes, allergies are split up into allergies to foods, chemicals (includes drugs) and inhalants (pollens and micro-organisms bacteria, mites, etc). A greatly overlooked group of allergens are microbes in the gut. I suspect many inexplicable conditions are due to allergy to gut microbes. Those that I am pretty sure of include irritable bladder or interstitial cystitis (allergy to yeast), rosacea , chronic urticaria, intrinsic asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis, polymayalgia rheumatica, bursitis, (allergy to bacteria).

People with undiagnosed food allergy often initially present with symptoms due to inflammation in the gut (irritable bowel syndrome) and inflammation in the brain (mood swings, depression, brain fog in adults or hyperactivity in children - see Hyperactivity - on the go all the time, no peace! and Hyperactivity - EPD works really well for this!).

However the inflammation can occur anywhere in the body resulting in asthma, rhinitis, eczema [see Eczema - how to treat], arthritis [see Arthritis - Nutritional treatments] and muscle pain, cystitis or vaginitis etc or a combination of symptoms.

If the cause is not identified, the inflammation often becomes more generalised resulting in chronic fatigue.

See Inflammation

Also any tendency to inflammation and allergies will be worsened by poor anti-oxidant status. See Antioxidants.

Related Articles


Sarah Myhill Limited :: Registered in England and Wales :: Registration No. 4545198
Registered Office: Upper Weston, Llangunllo, Knighton, Powys, Wales LD7 1SL, UK. Tel 01547 550331 | Fax 01547 550339